Saturday, July 23, 2011

Surgery July 21st

Today Cooper had his tumor removed.  The doctor said if they get enough clean tissue around the tumor that he won't have to go through radiation.  The doctors will give him 2 weeks to recover from surgery before starting chemotherapy again.  He still has 8 cycles to complete before he is done.  This is a picture I took while he was waiting for surgery.


After surgery he was very tired and hurting very bad.  It took awhile to manage the pain.  We had planned to stay 1 night but we ended up here for 2.  He still has a drain in that is constantly draining the surgery site.  I am not sure if we have to go home with it in or if they will take it out before we leave today.  He has been a really tough kid.  It was obvious he was in a lot of pain, so much pain that he was almost throwing up.  The first night was really hard. 

The physical therapist met with us yesterday afternoon.  She said the strength in his leg was great but she would like to see him put some weight on it.  She gave us a little walker to use and some blue tape to decorate it with.  Later yesterday Cooper and I decorated the walker and he tried it out.  It was only an hour after trying to bear weight that he took off almost running down the halls.  Once he realized he could walk again we couldn't keep him in his room.  He was zooming around the hospital with his blue walker.  It was a great night! 







It is the morning after the second night and I am waiting to hear from the doctors on the plan for today.  Right now Coop is sound asleep.  Hopefully we will be home later today.

Friday, July 22, 2011

PreSurgery Vacation

Since Cooper's white count is up for surgery we decided to take full advantage and since we had to be in Salt Lake for his surgeon visit a couple of days before surgery we went to Hogle Zoo, the fountain at the Gateway Mall, Boondocks, Build-A-Bear and more.  We had a blast as a family.  It was fun to hang out and be together!  Here are some pictures of our little vacation.



























Thursday, July 14, 2011

Still Recovering from Cycle 6

Cooper had a platelet transfusion last Friday night and the blood drawn today shows he needs another one.  The hospital said they won't have the platelets in until tomorrow night at 9 p.m.  Wow, it takes a long time to get his platelets.  Primary Childrens said they will still plan on surgery for July 21st.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Recovery from cycle 6

Well Coop has been pretty unhappy the last 2 days which is a good clue that his counts are dropping and he might need some blood or platelets.  He had a blood draw late this afternoon so we should know by tomorrow morning.  We still haven't heard about the results of his bone scan from last week, hopefully the doctor will call soon.  Here is a picture of Coop and myself after his blood draw today, it wiped him out and he slept for 2 hours.


The other kids are handling things pretty good.   They have had a nice summer so far.  Isaac and Dalton went to basketball camp at ISU and had a blast.  Korbie went to a soccer camp and had fun as well.  They love to swim and hopefully before the summer ends we can get them into swimming lessons and take them to lava.   Jared is playing a little softball with the guys and looking forward to hunting this fall.  Before Coop was diagnosed I signed up for 3 marathons.  I already ran Ogden and it was so fun, a really great day.  Morgan Valley is next on July 30th.  Pocatello is the first weekend in September.  Running is a good stress reliever and I love it!!!

Jared and I were able to meet many cancer patients this last trip Primary Childrens and everyone's stories tug at our heart strings.  It is so hard to see people go through these things, especially kids.  But I know we are also given strength with our trials so that we can rise above them and become stronger and more Christ-like.  We wish all of these families the best!!!  One little guy that people instantly love is Connor, he has Downs syndrome and A-L-L.  His visits to Primarys for chemo are 28 days at a time, way too long! 

 

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Cycle 6 is almost over!!!

Coop finishes chemo at 6 p.m. and then he will be discharged, hooray!!!  Fever is gone and he is feeling really good.  I bought him a new basketball last night and he has been dribbling it up and down the halls while Jared and I try to keep his IV machine by him.  I tried to get a good picture of him and his basketball but he didn't want to cooperate. 


Saturday, July 2, 2011

5th day of Cycle 6

Coop ended up getting a fever of 102 yesterday, possibly due to the chemo, an infection or a virus.  When he gets a fever they start blood cultures and antibiotics.  His fever continued through the night.  Not sure if he has one this morning yet, he is still sleeping. 

He will be getting a blood transfusion today.  We should also find out the results from the bone scan he had yesterday.  Since the first round of tests the doctor has been watching 2 areas, one in the lungs and one on his femur.  The chest CT results came back yesterday and the spot on the lungs is definately not cancer, hooray!  We are still waiting to hear about the femur.

 Sounds like Coop will be discharged tomorrow at 6 p.m.  He really wants to ride his bike in the 4th of July parade and he decorated it before we left, guess we will see how he feels when we get back. 

Friday, July 1, 2011

Third day of Cycle 6

It is now the third day of cycle 6!!  Cooper has a bone scan scheduled this morning and that will be the last test before we meet with the surgeon next week.  We found out his surgery is tentatively scheduled for July 21st.  He will then have 2 weeks of recovery before starting cycle 7.  We spoke with our oncologist yesterday and she said he will only have radiation if the surgeon can't get enough normal tissue around the tumor.  She thinks where the tumor is the surgeon will have no trouble and doesn't think Coop will have radiation.  He has continued to be happy and cooperative this cycle, things are good.